As we kick off the Northwest Film Center’s 40th Anniversary season, we want to underscore that this Festival is for and about the makers, and in that spirit, we are excited about our new name: the Northwest Filmmakers’ Festival. The Festival will look comfortingly familiar to those who have followed this unique showcase for the last 38 years, but every year represents a rebirth thanks to the ardent creativity of the region’s constantly regenerating media artists. They just keep making talented new filmmakers here, while the old ones keep reinventing the reel.

When you get to be 40 (or 38), you not only marvel at the legacy but at the friends who have been with you for the long haul. We truly appreciate the perennial support of sponsors like The National Endowment for the Arts, Oregon Arts Commission, The Paul G. Allen Family Foundation, LAIKA, Wieden+Kennedy, Wilamette Week, MacTarnahan’s Brewing, and so many more.

This year we are delighted to have ace film and art curator Andrea Grover, founder of the lauded Aurora Picture Show in Houston, Texas, join the Festival’s prestigious list of Judges. Grover is an independent film champion with the same respect and eye for creativity and innovation that the Festival celebrates. We hope her favorites will soon be some of yours.

And speaking of judges, special thanks to the crew at Mutt Industries for their diabolically creative minds, taking the old idea of artists referring to their works as “their babies” and turning it on its fontanel. Everyone’s a critic, so go ahead—let the baby judging begin.